Jumpy

Synopsis

Following an acclaimed run at the Royal Court, Jumpy transfers to the Duke of York’s Theatre in the West End.

Written by April de Angelis, Jumpy is the story of Hilary, a mother, a wife, and fifty who once protested at Greenham. Now her protests tend to focus on persuading her teenage daughter to go out fully clothed!

April De Angelis' work at the Royal Court includes Catch and Wild East. Her credits elsewhere include A Gloriously Mucky Business (Lyric Hammersmith); Calais (Paines Plough/Oran Mor); A Laughing Matter (Out of Joint Theatre Company, National Theatre); The Warwickshire Testimony (RSC, The Other Place) and The Positive Hour (Out of Joint Theatre/National Tour).

Director Nina Raine’s other work included Tribes (nominated for an Olivier Award for Best Play and an Evening Standard Award for Best New Play). She also directed Alia Bano's Shades at the Royal Court in 2009, which went on to win Evening Standard and Critics' Circle awards. Her other credits include Tiger Country (Hampstead Theatre), which she both wrote and directed, and her debut play Rabbit (Old Red Lion, Trafalgar Studios, 59E59 New York) which won the Evening Standard and Critics' Circle Awards for Most Promising Playwright.

Tamsin Greig returns to the role for which she won universal critical acclaim. Her other recent theatre credits include The Little Dog Laughed, for which she was nominated for an Olivier Award and won our own Whatsonstage.com Award. Other stage work includes The God of Carnage, Gethsemane and Much Ado About Nothing at the RSC for which she won Olivier and Critics’ Circle Awards. Her TV credits include Episodes, White Heat, Friday Night Dinner, Black Books, Green Wing, The Diary of Anne Frank, Love Soup and Emma. She received a BIFA nomination for Best Supporting Actress for her role in Tamara Drewe.

Book tickets for this hilarious new play now.

Our Review:

Michael Coveney - 29 August 2012

The Royal Court season at the Duke of York's continues with Nina Raine's spot-on and sparky production of April De Angelis's Jumpy, the only play I know whose title refers both to the heroine's state of mind and a small cuddly toy.

I was a bit mealy-mouthed about the piece first time round, but for all its deficiencies - a couple of the marginal characters are cyphers or caricatures - this sounds like a timely and heartfelt comedy of misunderstanding, not to say breakdown, between the generations.

And it stars Tamsin Greig in glorious form as Hilary, a middle-class 50 year-old literacy support unit worker who is losing her job, and her mind, as her monstrous micro-skirted teenage daughter Tilly (brilliant, moon-faced Bel Powley) flops through her GCSEs while staying out late and shouting a lot. And then shouting a lot more.

Then there's the fabulous Doon Mackichan as Frances, Hilary's best friend and drinking c...

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Latest User Review

Sammy - 4 January 2013:

I thought this was a brilliant piece of theater. However I do agree that Belle Powley's performance was the weakest out of all the cast. There were moments of tension and comedy throughout and it was generally fabulous!...

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